Word: atlases
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...more elaborate synthesis of existing sources of geographic knowledge informs the spectacular Catalan Atlas, commissioned by the crown prince of Aragon as a present for the 13-year-old Charles VI of France in 1375. The work of Cresques Abraham, the "master of maps and compasses" of the Spanish court, the Atlas was the earliest map to incorporate the travels of Marco Polo a century earlier, and thus sketched a recognizable outline of Asia that would be refined over the next 500 years of exploration. It includes a Europeanate illustration of Beijing and a portrait of the Mongol ruler Kublai...
...Sadly, the Catalan Atlas, like many of the other maps shrunk down to fit the pages of this book, is so intricate and large that much of its detail is incomprehensible, even with the help of a magnifying glass and a Latin dictionary. Another frustration is that many of the maps' most eye-catching details go unexplained because Nebenzahl's commentary focuses primarily on the historical context. But perhaps this failing is fitting. Presented like this, with their mysteries intact, the maps become, once again, invitations to further explorations. They beckon us into the shadowy waters of the past...
...germane (mornings or afternoons are centered on cooking your lunch or dinner), Markel has built in plenty of activities and road trips to round out the journey. After a few days of acclimation, there are new restaurants and teahouses in Marrakech to experience, plus gentle hikes in the Atlas Mountains, nights sleeping in the casbah and visits to the aromatherapy garden of Jalil Belkamel in the Ourika Valley. One of the most fascinating afternoons is spent in the village of Fouloust, where the argan tree, prized for its oil, is indigenous. Village women show how they crack the argan nuts...
...Ghostwritten, David Mitchell gave us what could be called the first novel of the 21st century, a truly global work of fiction that set stories in Japan, China, London, New York City and elsewhere and somehow wove them into a single tale about the transmigration of souls. In Cloud Atlas, his third novel, the prodigiously talented Briton, 35, tries to do with time what he earlier did with space. Six tales crisscross--moving between Belgium in 1931 and a genomic future in which North Korea has discovered genetic engineering--and so suggest that all times and not just all people...
...seems to leave the rest of humanity behind. His visionary flights are more striking than their targets (colonialism, preachers, corporations), and when he cannot get the language quite down--as in a sequence set in 1975 California--the construction begins to feel a little secondhand. The whole of Cloud Atlas never quite lives up to its parts, though every page showcases a high-wire artist who dares us to think of a unified theory of humanity and how "souls cross the skies o' time." Mitchell writes with such bravado and intensity that he can make us believe--as he clearly...